


2 milites 1 carcer

by sparklingdali, thecrystalmadness



Category: Ogniem i Mieczem | With Fire and Sword (1999), Trylogia | The Trilogy - Henryk Sienkiewicz
Genre: M/M, Pre-Canon, based on that one sentence in the books
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-27 09:48:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17159768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sparklingdali/pseuds/sparklingdali, https://archiveofourown.org/users/thecrystalmadness/pseuds/thecrystalmadness
Summary: Jan Skrzetuski finds himself freezing in a dungeon with his best friend.





	2 milites 1 carcer

Jan was reaching his breaking point, shaking as he sat on the cold stone floor, freezing to the marrow of his bones. In the last few minutes (or has it been hours?) the only thing he could focus on was one tale of their first commander about a certain solider who got such a terrible frostbite in his leg that when he touched his big toe in the morning it just cracked and fell off. Zakrzewski was making the cracking noise in demonstration, cackling with a grin that was missing a few teeth. Michal told him to not believe such tales because they were the kind told by old soldiers to new recruits in times of boredom for their own amusement.

Slowly, Jan turned his head towards Michal sitting in the next corner. Puffs of hot air were coming out of his mouth as he breathed but so far his small figure was not shuddering with cold the same way he was. This definitely illuminated their persisting dispute if short people got colder sooner than taller ones. Jan wasn't very happy to be proven right.

The obvious solution would be to get closer, to share the body heat instead of freezing meters apart in this cell for God knows how long. But it was pride that kept both of them silent. For Michal's part perhaps still anger. He was the one who drew his sword first, calling him a traitor. Shortly after they were thrown in here thinking of this would make Jan's blood boil but it was no longer warming him up. At this moment, such a thought made him feel even colder.

"I can hear your teeth clattering from over here."

Jan turned towards Michal, who was loking at him from where he was, sitting on the floor while hugging his legs close.

He tried to shrug but his body convulsed so bad at the moment he wasn't sure his friend could notice. Jan could barely see Michal himself with only the torch in the corridor illuminating their cell. How badly he wanted to break the barred door open just so he could press his palms towards the flame.

"Of course she likes you more," Michal stared at the wall in front of him."You always have to be better. You always have to point out the obvious. Sometimes..."

"What?" Jan said in a raspy voice, fearing what he would hear.

"I wish I could hate you. It would be easier."

Jan felt a sinking feeling in his chest. Michal started to shake too, he could almost hear it in his breathing. Jan couldn't imagine how they would spend the night there. If it was for any other man, he'd expect to be brought out after a few hours when they both learned their lesson. But Jeremi's soldiers didn't misbehave. And when they did, they deserved no mercy.

"Do you think we will freeze to the death?" Michal said after a while, teeth clattering against each other. "That's cruel even for Jeremi."

"He isn't cruel," Jan frowned slightly. "He is very just. I don't know what we were thinking. I don't... I don't even like her that much." That wasn't really true. He cared enough to fight his best friend over her ."It was just the... the principle of the thing."

"Typical. You don't even like her but that doesn't stop you from kissing her and acting as if you were in love."

"I don't know what it's like to be in love," Jan said gravely. It might have not been a complete truth but he never really cared for another woman much deeply besides his mother. It was easier to grow close to the men around him because they shared the everyday hardship and troubles, cried and laughed together, sometimes having only each other as a company for months when they went out. There were a few he almost hated, to some he felt indifference but to someone like Michal? Jan couldn't imagine a world without him. Just the thought of him leaving one day and never returning made his heart beat faster.

With Anusia he knew he was using her pretty much about the same way she was using him. And Jan definitely wouldn't fight being used when she looked at him with those pretty dark eyes and threw such smiles at him that he felt his face grow hot even now.

She was a pleasant distraction between the melancholy that occasionally overcame him, particularly often in winter months like these when they couldn't be sent even on a scouting mission.

Michal should've understood as he was the main object of her affections not even a month ago.

"It's terrible, that's what it is. Imagine any kind of suffering including this and then double it. That's how loving someone feels."

Jan watched him with wide eyes, only now realizing Michal was talking about love. He laughed weakly. "I thought it was supposed to feel nice."

They sat in silence and with nothing to distract him, Jan began to find the cold unbearable again. He stood up slowly, feeling pain in every joint. Doing his best to ignore it, he walked aimlessly around the cell. Could he do this for the whole night? Jan tried to tie his shirt closer to his neck but it was pointless, the string tore away when he was getting ready to duel and pulled hastily at his clothes.

He sat down again but the shivering was worse now and even when he tried to bite his own hand so his teeth didn't clatter so much, his hand was slipping from his mouth.

It must have been hours, surely a morning would come soon. Jan didn’t want to contemplate anything else but dark thoughts were slipping into his mind until he couldn’t focus on anything else. He didn’t know how much time passed from his last stroll, only that he didn’t have the energy for another one.

"Come here."

Jan couldn't even turn, didn't want Michal to see his terrified face that could only think of death. He was never afraid in battle, even the first time when he had no experience and rode in the front. That would've been a glorious death. But perishing in this hole? Jan couldn't stomach he would be remembered like that and the next shiver went through him so hard his hand slipped on the floor from his lap where he was warming it.

"Jan?"

Michal was standing next to him, touching him on the shoulder. He looked up, the desperate look in his eyes all that his friend must have needed to sank down next to him.

"Christ," Michal whispered, wrapping his arms around him. Just this small contact made Jan feel better although the cold was there still. He shook again violently despite attempts to hold himself together.

"Closer," whispered Michal. "I need to..." He didn't finish. Somehow he made Jan lie on his side and then he turned his back towards him and pressed it to his. It made a huge difference and even with the cold floor he immediately felt the warmth of the other body seeping into him.

They laid like this for a while. Jan could only think of Michal's face when he saw them, not the angry twitch in his mustache or the words he screamed at him afterwards, but the initial shock at seeing him, the incomprehension when he looked into Jan's eyes.

"I'm sorry. I really am."

Jan felt Michal hold a breath. He spoke again:

"I didn't meant to steal her from you."

After some silence Michal said in a weak voice. "She can make one lose their mind. Do you think she feels bad that we got thrown down here because of her?"

Jan would let out laugh if the shivers that returned back into his body didn't cut it short. "That fight? We will be her favorites forever now."

Michal laughed but then Jan with a startle felt his back move away. He turned to him, desperate to get the only source of warmth back only to see his friend stare at him in shock.

"Calm down. I'm not going anywhere. But this isn't working."

"Come closer then," Jan said, wishing nothing else than to feel warm again. "Like this."

He wrapped his arms around Michal and then made him lie on the ground, shuffling their legs for a bit until he had one of his own hidden between Michal's thighs and the other pressed atop, caring very little that they probably looked like long lost lovers. He actually gasped from the rush of heat that he received, sighing happily when Michal too wrapped arms around his back, resting his head on his chest. Without the cold floor, this would feel almost good.

Only after a few minutes he realized that good feeling would become a major problem. Not only he got warmer but his heart started beating faster and with a mild horror he felt himself getting stiff. How could he not have expected this to happen? There were less arousing acts that made him like this but in his desperation he didn't realize having another man's body pressed so tight against him would naturally... make him react in the natural manner.

Perhaps there wasn't much natural in the way Jan felt. Small mercy that he couldn't see Michal's face. Maybe he wouldn't say anything, the good friend he was, act as if nothing was going on, never mentioned it, wouldn't have dreamt of making Jan feel terrible. Jan wanted to believe that. Couldn't think of him turning away in disgust, accusing him of ungodly things, saying out loud all that Jan sometimes thought of himself when he felt like that. Things he even used to believe were true when he was younger.

He tried to shift a little to avoid being pressed so much towards him even if everything in him screamed to not do it. He was startled when Michal spoke in a strained voice.

"I'm so sorry."

He froze on the spot.

"No, don't apologize. I would do the same thing in your place."

"Not about that," Michal groaned. "You know what I'm talking about."

"No, I-" Jan couldn't finish, because he suddenly knew exactly what he was talking about. What he thought was Michal's hand - and really, did his brain freeze too when he could clearly feel both of them grasping his back - wasn't a hand at all.

At first Jan actually felt a surge of panic. Surely, Michal couldn't... but then. Was it normal then, to feel like this? It couldn't be. And yet.

"Oh, that," he said a bit pointlessly.

"I don't... I don't know why."

"It's fine. It really is. I don't... I don't mind." Jan felt his face getting heated by this admission, although Michal couldn't possibly suspect how much exactly he didn't mind.

"Nobody, I don't want anybody to know that." It was breaking Jan's heart, the anguish he heard in Michal's voice. "Please don't tell anyone, I can't-"

Jan bent down, cupping Michal's cheek to raise his head from his chest. He didn't know how to explain it to him, that he wasn't alone, that if there was something wrong in him then there was another person that felt the same way too. They stared at each other for a while, until Jan finally decided to finish what he started and kissed him.

Michal was for a moment surprised, not moving but also not pulling away. But then he grabbed Jan with such a strength he practically groaned into his mouth when they were pressed against each other again. He didn't even try to fight the urge to move along, shamelessly creating friction between their bodies, making Michal gasp when he pushed his thigh harder to his groin. Jan really thought they would get off like this but his friend proved to have much better ideas.

"Yes, Christ, yes," he tried to help Michal in unlacing his pants but his hands were pushed away impatiently as they were only getting in the way. Michal's eyes were dark when he finally wrapped his calloused hand around him, staring into his eyes hungrily. Jan gasped at the cold fingers on his skin, stroking him at first in a rather unskilled way given how his fingers were numb from the cold. But soon he could only manage choked up moans, fingers digging into Michal's shoulder in attempts to bring him closer. Soon, perhaps embarrassingly quickly, a total bliss overcame him as he felt Michal gasp into his chest, warm lips on his skin, making him for a few seconds forget absolutely everything.

With a hand fumbling around aimlessly for a while, Jan finally managed to get a good grip on him, letting Michal push his body to the ground as he brought him off, relishing every sound he made as he sped up the pace, until he went slack against him, letting out a relieved laugh.

When Michal raised his head, apparently rested enough to catch his breath and speak, only one word came out of him as he frowned.

"But..."

"But?" Jan tried to make his voice sound funny but Michal just blinked in confusion. "What were you going to say?"

"I don't even know anymore." Michal was trying to clean his shirt and to his dismay found no ways to do so. Without any awkwardness left, he again laid alongside Jan. This time they held each other more comfortably, still enjoying the extra warmth of what they did, even if it began to regrettably slowly slip away.

"You have to promise me that you won't fall in love with me."

Michal burst into a laugh, that shook his whole body.

"Am I this hilarious? It's no laughing matter with you, no beauty is safe from your heart here at Lubnie."

"And you consider yourself one of those beauties, Panna Skrzetuska?" Michal was still laughing.

"Oh I think if there was ever to be Panna Skrzetuska out of the two of us it would be you."

Michal's eyes darkened, gripping Jan's shoulders fast, whispering under his mustache. "You would have to defeat me first for that."

Jan felt his voice go a bit dry, heart beating faster. "I will certainly try."

Michal nodded, smiling like some kind of predator who just spotted his prey. "Can't wait to see that." He rested his hand against is shoulder.

It was Jeremi himself that woke them in the morning, half frozen.

Jan, eyes barely opened, recognized his curly dark hair falling over his shoulder as he looked at them. It was enough to rouse Michal from sleep so they could face him in a more dignified position than the close embrace which ultimately helped them survive the night. Did Jan imagine it or did he see a knowing smirk on Jeremi's face?

"Zakrzewski said he will take you two under his wing when he goes on expedition. Get well soon so you may prove us that you two are worth being my knights."

Weak and cold that they were, they still stood up to salute. The moment they were let outside, and Jeremi watched them on the courtyard from his window, they began to race each other to the barracks, screaming at each other through clattering teeth so loud the whole fortress could hear them.

Wiśniowiecki admired his own genius at the way he turned two enemies into friends. He didn't realize Jan and Michal were as far from enemies as a two people could be.

**Author's Note:**

> (written for the 'cold', 'warmth' and 'touch' Yuletide Trylogia prompt)


End file.
